The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
by Boy Villasanta
The moment she emerged onstage, Imelda Papin was the undisputed Asia’s Sentimental Songstress and more.
“Imelda Papin Birthday Special” held recently at the Newport Performing Arts Theater of the Newport Resorts World in Pasay City was a testament that the chanteuse is not any more a Jukebox Queen but still a Videoke Empress back in the old days.
When she stepped in the center to the proscenium stage with her opening fast number, “Simply the Best“—after a rap piece from her grandson Zac—she was confident in her notes and moves.
At her age, you don’t imagine Papin still sliding, gliding, bending although controlled but she just moved about effortlessly no matter the tight hugging frock she wore like a peacock.
Imelda went beyond her image behind her hit songs as a harbinger of a woman paramour, an underdog lover, a sacrificial lamb, a jilted admirer, a liberated female, a martyr wife/girlfriend, a cheat all rolled into a multiverse. inuendo
The audience was emphatic as she sang “Bakit Ikaw Pa?” with much passion.
Meanwhile, one of the most applauded songs was “Isang Linggong Pag-ibig” which drew the loudest and the biggest admiration.
It was at this point that Imelda admitted and explained that the song, composed by Mon del Rosario, was first recorded by her elder sister—Gloria Belen, now rechristened as Gloria Papin—with its original title “O Kay Bilis.”
Gloria had a trio with Imelda and their youngest sis Aileen Grace Papin but it was just a medley number, the siblings alternating one after the other.
She should have given a completely solo performance or at least two full renditions because Gloria could also stand out among the three sisters.
That was the first time I heard her sing and boy! was she indeed a talent to reckon with, she could give Imelda and Aileen a run for their vocal chords.
Sadly, Gloria was sidetracked in the whole show as she could complement her more popular younger sis with her soulful delivery.
Maybe a back-to-back concert is in order for Imelda and Gloria.
It’s obvious that Imelda has become a master of spiels while speaking in between her performances since God knows when. Her diction was seamless even as she employed Taglish or Engalog ad libs and her enunciation was clear.
She could be playful, though, even at this juncture when she gave a short background about the song “Titig Mo (Your Glance)” written by del Rosario.
“It was me who gave the title to the song,” she chuckled.
Double entendre gave the song a face and meaning which perhaps lent sexual innuendos to the ditty which after a prolonged reiteration of the word “titig,” Imelda herself couldn’t help but utter a teasing expression and a wink that elicited guffaws from the crowd.
What brought Imelda to her knees was when she rendered a spiritual song about the greatness of the Love of the Lord as a redeemer of the earthly in this world.
With a full-sized hankie, the star of the show shed tears and wipe them with it.
The other song that triggered a spine-tingling reaction was a nationalistic song that La Papin had interpreted with gusto.
La Papin’s national anthem, “Bakit?” as given a new twist, if not fully but some of its bars, that she and daughter Maffi Papin Carrion had dueted.
The minimalist stage was filled with Imelda’s own invisible objects of desire, grandeur, majesty, simplicity, nature etc. that were approximated by the graphics on the LED wall.